GUIDs are “Globally Unique Identifiers”. They are used in many (almost all) applications for all kinds of purposes. They are often stored in files with objects when the application needs to definitively identify that object and be able to recall exactly the right one for future purposes. GUIDs are generated by a well-known process that is intended to guarantee their uniqueness across space and time. In theory it is impossible for a machine that follows the GUID algorithm to generate a GUID that has already been generated by another machine or by the same machine at another time. This guarantees uniqueness. However, there are still circumstances where GUIDs can cease to be unique. For example, if a file that contains many GUIDs important to the application (e.g. a document with GUIDs for each object in the document) is copied by the user in the file system to a different folder. It then becomes possible to have two files (the two copies) that could diverge over time, and hence represent different entities, that actually have the same GUIDs in them.
This causes many problems for the application. If the application now opens both documents and needs to find an object based on its GUID to perform an operation, then the application would face a situation where there are two identical “GUID” s that point to different entities and are therefore no longer unique. Resolving this is difficult.
Accordingly there is an unaddressed need in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.